Oyster Bay Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Cape May

Disappointed.

My family thought this would be a nice place to eat since it's one of the more talked about placed in Cape May, and since it's an upscale restaurant and bar that everyone seems to like. In mid-April we reserved a table of 7, and were seated in the front of the dining room.

It was a quieter room, where you couldn't hear the bar (thankfully), but as soon as we were seated I noticed a problem. The table itself was very wobbly. It seemed that every time anyone walked by the table, the entire floor shook, and thus the table would shake. It became very annoying, very quickly. After a few minutes the waitress came and took all our drink orders. Mainly everyone ordered a wine except for myself and the person next to me.

Within 10 minutes, we all had our drinks, except for me and person next to me. We thought it was strange wine was received before water, but whatever, they looked busy. 15 minutes pass, and still no basic water. We ask the next waitress we see if we could get water for the two of us, and she assured that she would get it now. She did come back within a few minutes, but did not give us water. It tasted like a club soda, or half club and half water. The person next to me confirmed her's wasn't water either. Funnily enough, my water was passed around the table and everyone had their opinion on the 'water'. Our waitress didn't come by for a few minutes and I wasn't too thirsty so I let it slide.

About 30 minutes later (45 minutes from walking in) we receive our food. Everyone's food looked delicious as everyone was rest assured that their food was going to taste like a 5 star restaurant. Sadly, no. The mother directly across from me ordered a dish that the waitress assured would not be spicy, or was told they would not add the spice to the dish. She had to take it back and share the platter that her husband was having. I do believe they took it off the bill.

My plate was lackluster. I ordered the 'Chicken Brushetta' (psst - it's Bruschetta) My chicken was wet, and had 0 flavor. I'm talking you couldn't even taste the lemon. You really had to tear at the chicken to separate it, and was chewy. It was covering the rice, which was also bland. It was like they used generic rice with no flavoring added, just plopped it on and heated it.

The combination of the wobbly table, club soda water, and bland chicken and rice, I'm not going to recommend this place to...

Gary, the “Manager” is the direct result of this poor review. After driving over 100 miles to have dinner with my family, we decided on this restaurant for some nice atmosphere and quality food. Though our wait staff was friendly, and it was somewhat understandable that the main special (catch of the day) wasn’t available due to running out 2 days ago.. All three of our steaks and meals were cooked the opposite of what was ordered. For the prices, it’s assumed there would be very few issues, not the case at all. As we told the waiter, he himself came back and relayed that the manager was willing to take 30% off one of the meals. It wasn’t until we requested the manager that he came over in a very inappropriate attitude and began to make excuses for the chef. Instead of apologizing and making it right for us, Gary continued to argue and fight with us that the meal is usually cooked properly, and he would take something off the check. When I requested my overcooked steak be taken off the bill, Gary once again argued and said he would only discount the steak. It was so upsetting his ignorance and lack of professionalism, that I told him to simply take the steak away because I wasn’t going to eat it. Gary said “awesome” and walked the meal away. I then and there lost my appetite and was so upset by Gary’s terrible treatment that I immediately got up and left the restaurant. I wasn’t willing to spend another second at this place, and the customers around our table were visibly upset by the situation they had to witness as well.

Congratulations, Gary - you’ve lost us as customers for life, and earned this review. Hopefully you treat visiting customers better in the...

So disappointed. Hate to leave a bad review, but: In years past, the happy hour food and drinks at the beautiful bar here were a treat. Friendly & professional staff and consistently delicious food as expected in a fine dining restaurant. But when we returned this past July, such a letdown. A sourpuss bartender acted like she was doing us a favor to get our $14 glasses of wine. Then, after we asked for menus, she disappeared to the far side of the bar to chat at length with other staff. It was early, so not busy.

We waited 30-40 minutes as she came past our side of the bar but ignored us, and instead stayed glued to her cel phone, texting multiple times while we sat there watching.

We finally got food ordered, and noticed the prices had been raised on most dishes. That wouldn't have been so remarkable being Cape May in 2023, but then the food arrived.

What used to be a to-die-for lump backfin crab and fried tomato appetizer now featured cheap stringy picked crabmeat smothered in something like mayo with dried out, fried tomato slices. A second app of roasted peppers was smothered in a bland, goopy queso sauce reminiscent of Taco Bell. Were the peppers fresh? No telling. Finally, a short rib dish featured a mass of limp, tepid steak fries topped with @two tablespoons of meat. Uniformly awful food, meh presentation, and indifferent service at higher than ever prices.

A dinner shift bartender did come on just as we were preparing to leave and offered the kind of hospitality that used to be the norm here, but we left planning to avoid OB in the future. Plenty of other options for great food, fine dining and truely convivial atmospheres exist...